Airbag door of a vehicle

ABSTRACT

This invention relates to an airbag door of a vehicle characterized by having a plate spring  12  located underneath the internal surface of said airbag door  10  which has a restoring force to be rolled up and multiple evenly spaced grooves  14  generated in the lower part of said airbag door  10  so that said airbag door  10  can be rolled up along the groove when said airbag door  10  is deployed thus enabling to prevent the windshield from breakage resulted from a physical contact with an airbag door  10  when said airbag door is deployed upon a vehicle collision.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention

[0002] This invention relates to an airbag door of a vehicle which isdesigned to prevent the breakage of the windshield usually resulted froma direct contact with an airbag door when said airbag door is deployedupon a vehicle collision.

[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art

[0004] Many vehicles have been provided with airbags as a way to protectpassengers as well as drivers from a possible automotive vehicleaccident. The conventional airbags, however, have not been consideredvery advantageous in that the airbag doors which encompass those airbagsoften damage the windshield of a vehicle when said airbag doors are tornaway as the airbags are deployed. One way to prevent the breakage of thewindshield 18 is to mount a regulating device 16 to control the angle ofairbag deployment on both sides of the airbag door 10 so that angle ofdeployment can be kept within a certain degree as shown in FIG. 5.Moreover, the central part of an airbag door 10 is cut open so that saidairbag door 10 can avoid contacting the windshield 18 thus preventingthe breakage of said windshield 18 as shown in FIG. 6. However, themounting of said regulating device that can control the deployment angleof airbag door in FIG. 5 is very difficult and also those devices areusually unable to tolerate the pressure delivered by the deployingairbag. Moreover, the fact that the conventional airbags in FIG. 6 aredeployed as the airbag doors are torn open in the center endangers thatthe direction of the airbag deployment may not be directed toward apassenger when there is a vehicle collision.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0005] Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide an airbagdoor of a vehicle characterized by having a dual safety mechanismcomprising 1) a plate spring beneath the internal surface of said airbagdoor with a restoring force to be rolled up and also 2) multiple evenlyspaced grooves formed in the lower part of said airbag door so that saidairbag door can be rolled up along the grooves when said airbag door isdeployed, thus enabling to prevent the windshield from breakage resultedfrom a direct contact with an airbag door when said airbag door isdeployed due to a vehicle collision.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006]FIG. 1 shows an airbag door of a vehicle installed according tothis invention.

[0007]FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of a deployed airbag door of avehicle installed according to this invention.

[0008]FIG. 3 shows a side view of a plate spring mounted inside anairbag door of a vehicle installed according to this invention.

[0009]FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 show a deployed conventional airbag door of avehicle.

[0010] [Code Explanation of the Major Parts]

[0011]10: airbag door

[0012]12: plate spring

[0013]14: a groove

[0014]16: a regulating device of deployment angle

[0015]18: windshield

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0016] The main object of this invention is to provide an airbag door ofa vehicle characterized by having a plate spring 12 inside said airbagdoor 10 manufactured entirely by means of injection molding and also byhaving many evenly spaced grooves 14 in the lower part of said airbagdoor 10.

[0017] The overall scheme of this invention can be delineated in a moreclear fashion with reference to the FIGS as set forth hereunder.

[0018]FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of an airbag door of avehicle. The airbag door 10 is de signed to be opened up as an airbag isdeployed upon a vehicle collision. Underneath said airbag door 10, thereis provided a plate spring 12 manufactured entirely by injection moldingas shown in FIG. 3. Said plate spring 12 is the one that has a restoringforce to be rolled up, and it is installed so that the direction that itis being rolled and the direction that said airbag door 10 is deployedcan be unidirectional. In addition, there are provided many grooves 14in the lower part of the airbag door 10 which are evenly spaced and alsoparallel to the east-west direction of a given vehicle frame. Since theairbag door 10 is torn open triggered by a vehicle collision, the airbagdoor 10 is rolled up being forced by the restoring force of the platespring 12, and the airbag door 10 is being rolled up via a multiplesequential bending action with its bending activity centered on thegrooves 14 formed in the lower part of said airbag door 10. Because theairbag door 10 is being rolled up to be deployed, the airbag door 10 canavoid contacting the windshield 18 and is thus able to prevent saidwindshield from the breakage which used to occur in vehicles equippedwith the conventional airbag doors. Further, said airbag door 10 havingonly grooves 14 can be also bent in a multiple and sequential fashioneven without a plate spring 12. Consequently, this invention presents anovel airbag door of a vehicle which can prevent the usual breakage of awindshield resulted from a vehicle collision by providing a dual safetysystem which has a plate spring with a restoring force to be rolled upmounted beneath the airbag door thus airbag door can be rolled upinstead of being burst open in the case of the conventional airbag doorsand also many evenly spaced grooves formed in the lower part of theairbag door can lead the airbag door to an orderly and sustaineddeployment sufficient to avoid sudden contact with the windshield of avehicle when there is a vehicle accident.

What is claimed is:
 1. An airbag door of a vehicle characterized byhaving an elastic member placed underneath the internal surface of anairbag door manufactured by an injection molding which has a restoringforce to be rolled up and also multiple evenly spaced grooves formed inthe lower part of said airbag door.
 2. The airbag door of a vehicleaccording to claim 1, wherein said elastic member is a plate spring.